Carl Wheeler

At a recent hearing in Park County District Court, the prosecution argued that a Powell accountant’s embezzlement of $1.28 million merited a four- to six-year prison sentence.

District Judge Bill Simpson, however, concluded that the decade-long theft from a Cody-based newspaper publishing company deserved a longer sentence. Simpson ordered Carl Wheeler to serve six to eight years with the Wyoming Department of Corrections.

“I can tell you that [of] all the cases I’ve dealt with, either as a private attorney or as a judge, I have not seen an amount of $1.2 million-plus dollars,” Simpson said at an Aug. 8 hearing. “Society needs to have a message sent.”

Wheeler, who is 76, had never been in trouble with the law before. Multiple family members and friends testified that the theft was sharply out-of-character. They described Wheeler as “annoyingly honest,” a “rule follower,” kind, caring, a veteran of the U.S. military and a good person. They all said they were shocked to learn of the charges in 2023.

Wheeler himself struggled to explain what led him to steal the money from Sage Publishing.

“I’m sorry I got lost. I don’t know how … why, what,” he told the court, “but I lost who I am, or at least who I used to be. I strayed from my Christian upbringing.”

‘An enormous sum of money’

Wheeler pleaded guilty to four felony counts of theft earlier this year. Each count related to a different bank account that he used to receive the $1,283,550.66 siphoned from Sage Publishing.

The company operated about 10 community newspapers and employed scores of people at its peak. Sage’s publications included the Cody Enterprise and The Buyer’s Guide, a shopper that was jointly owned with the Powell Tribune; the Enterprise sold to a new owner in 2022 and The Buyer’s Guide shuttered earlier that same year.

Wheeler had joined Sage’s business office back in 2004. The thefts began in 2011 and continued through 2023.

Wheeler took the money in $1,000 to $15,000 increments, making a total of 193 transfers from Sage’s accounts to his own, said Sage Publishing co-owner Bob Kennedy.

Wheeler helped himself to about $100,000 a year, including some years when the newspaper industry was struggling, Kennedy said. He called it “an enormous sum of money to lose.”

Kennedy said he and his family members put their faith in Wheeler. He helped Sage clean up an earlier embezzlement by another individual in 2004, court records indicate, and Kennedy told police that the accountant was entrusted with “everything” at the company.

Kennedy indicated it would be hard to trust anyone again and shared lingering feelings of guilt, shame and embarrassment about having the money stolen from his company.

In what Kennedy described as “a flagrant act of deceit,” Wheeler reportedly hid the transactions by manipulating Sage’s books and keeping the transactions off its general ledger.

“This was not a one-time impulsive lack of judgment,” Kennedy said in a victim impact statement. “It was a lack of any moral compass and a violation of our trust in him as an individual and a professional.”

During his own statement, Wheeler specifically apologized to his former employer.

“I’m mostly sorry that I violated Mr. Kennedy’s trust,” he said. “I never meant to harm anybody, ever in my life.”

He closed out his remarks by begging “for mercy from the court and, hopefully someday, forgiveness from the victims and both from God.”

‘Where did the money go?’

Despite stealing the seven-figure sum, Wheeler reportedly had relatively little money when he was arrested in the fall of 2023. 

At August’s sentencing, Wheeler’s defense attorney, Sam Krone, indicated that his client’s sole source of income was roughly $2,200 a month from Social Security and that his only significant asset was his home.

Kennedy asked where all of the money went, questioning if it went to Wheeler’s wife, a 51-year-old woman who lives in Ukraine. 

When questioned by Cody police in 2023, Wheeler reportedly said he’d been “borrowing” money to help his wife, who reportedly had encountered medical problems. The two have been a couple since 2009, Wheeler indicated.

Deputy Park County Attorney Larry Eichele noted that there was no testimony about what amount of money, if any, was sent overseas.

He said there was also no indication that “there was a mistake that this particular relationship or this woman was part of” nor any indication that the woman had a particular influence on Wheeler.

Eichele contended that the “huge amount of money” involved made a four- to six-year sentence appropriate.

In arguing instead for probation, Krone noted that Wheeler had no prior criminal history and had faithfully complied with the terms of his house arrest over the last two years. Wheeler’s family members and friends said they had no doubt he would do similarly well on probation.

As for how he might repay the $1.28 million in restitution, Wheeler put his Powell home up for sale for $299,000. Once a buyer was found and the mortgage was paid off, Wheeler said he would immediately give $50,000 to Sage Publishing and then pay $1,000 a month for the rest of his life.

Krone contended that it was Wheeler’s “sole purpose to do everything in his power to pay back the Kennedy family.”

Opting for prison time

But Simpson was critical of Wheeler’s restitution plan — noting in part that the defendant had only listed his home two weeks before the sentencing hearing. He acknowledged the testimony that Wheeler had been an honest businessman and a good father, but also noted that the professional accountant betrayed the Kennedy family’s trust over a period of 12 years.

“That really bothers me, and it concerns me,” Simpson said, according to a transcript released earlier this month, “because the public needs to know, you’re not going to be allowed to steal money — in excess of $1 million — and then come before the court and say, ‘I’m a good person. I just made a mistake. I don’t have a restitution plan.’”

The judge also emphasized the seriousness of an accountant violating his oath, likening it to a lawyer taking money.

“And to let you walk away from us with probation is not going to accomplish much of anything — for you, for the public or for the Kennedy family,” he said.

Simpson then went on to impose the six- to eight-year sentence.

As of Wednesday, Department of Corrections records showed that Wheeler was being held at the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution in Torrington. His projected discharge date was listed as December 2030, though Simpson mentioned that he would be willing to consider a request for a reduced sentence in the future.